AJK marks Universal Environmental Day today

A grand walk to be taken out here in Mirpur will be the hallmark of World Environmental Day to be observed across the globe - including Azad Jammu & Kashmir on Wednesday (today) to raise awareness among people to fight against the challenges faced by the environment on the planet.“World Environment Day is an annual event that is aimed at being the biggest and most widely celebrated global day for positive environmental action”, said Sardar Idrees Mahmood, Mirpur Divisional Director Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of AJK government.The walk, Sardar Idress told The Nation here on Tuesday, will be managed by AJK-EPA in collaboration with District Administration, Laraib Energy Pvt Limited and other stakeholders to mark the world environmental day. The walk which will start at 9:30am from Shaheed Chowk Mirpur and culminate at Nangi. It will be followed by a symposium to raise importance of the individual and collective role against the environmental pollution.Elaborating, Idrees said that the World Environment Day activities take place around the world at climax on June 5, every year, involving everyone from everywhere. He said that through World Environment Day, the United Nations Environment Programme emerged as the strong source to personalize environmental issues and enable everyone to realize not only their responsibility, but also their power to become agents for change in support o f sustainable and equitable development. World Environment Day is also a day for people from all walks of life to come together to ensure a cleaner, greener and brighter outlook for themselves and future generations, he added.The theme for this year’s World Environment Day celebrations is Think, Eat, Save. Think, Eat, Save is an anti-food waste and food loss campaign that encourages you to reduce your food print. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), every year 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted. This is equivalent to the same amount produced in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, 1 in every 7 people in the world go to bed hungry and more than 20,000 children under the age of 5 die daily from hunger.